Poaching news of the weird

What is it with poachers? Could it be some genetic deficiency? I don’t have the answers, but some game law violators sure appear to be mental midgets.

In Vermont, 19-year-old Marcel Fournier was charged with illegally taking a doe and checking it in as a buck. It wasn’t his hunting prowess, but his lack of taxidermy skill that landed Fournier in jail for 10 days. The poacher used lag bolts and epoxy to place antlers on the doe and checked her in at the check station.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090314/NEWS02/903140310

In my home state of Kentucky, a Morehead resident was charged with 48 counts.

A Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) press release states:

“It all started when a conservation officer for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources received a tip about illegal deer kills in Rowan County.

A Rowan County man is free on a $7,500 full cash bond and awaiting arraignment after conservation officers charged him Feb. 20 with a total of 48 counts, including illegally killing deer, cultivating and trafficking in marijuana and drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, pills in improper containers and trapping without a license.

Officers arrested Kevin Watkins, 35, of Morehead at his residence and lodged him in the Rowan County Detention Center. Officers executed a search warrant after Conservation Officer Glenn Kitchen received a tip that Watkins had killed three deer illegally.During the search, Kitchen, joined by Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Captain Paul Teague, Sergeant Herb Booth and Conservation Officers Loren Clark and Andrew Black, seized 94 sets of deer antlers, seven marijuana plants, indoor grow lights, a cloning system, 16 bags of processed marijuana totaling nearly 1½ pounds, more than 100 pills in plastic bags, four sets of weighing scales, 19 firearms and $1,251 in cash.

Watkins was scheduled to be arraigned in Rowan District Court March 11 before District Judge Donald Blair.”